Ontario Tories talk tough ahead of Tuesday’s throne speech

She has picked her cabinet, she has been officially sworn-in and she has met with the opposition leaders.

On Tuesday, however, Kathleen Wynne will face her toughest challenge to date as Ontario's premier: to keep her minority government alive, she'll have to convince one of the opposition parties to support her throne speech.

On Friday, she seemed confident that she could pull it off.

"I sent a letter to both [opposition leaders] and my hope is that they will both see the common enterprise in the the throne speech. I believe that there are common touch points from conversations that we have had," she told reporters.

While details have been scarce, thethrone speech, to be delivered by Lieutenant Governor David Onley, is expected to be focused on jobs and the economy.

[ Related: Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne unveils her new ‘fresh-face’ cabinet ]

On the surface, it looks like Wynne will have an ally in NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

The New Democrats are calling on Wynne to implement several of their ideas in the speech and in the spring budget. These include an end to corporate tax loopholes, a strategy for youth unemployment, a 15 per cut to auto insurance premiums and a public inquiry into the cancelled gas plants.

The Tories, on the other hand, are talking tough.

In an op-ed column published in the Toronto Sun, on Sunday, PC leader Tim Hudak said that after his two meetings with Wynne, he's concerned about the "lack of urgency" demonstrated by this premier.

"Instead of stepping up to confront our jobs and debt crisis, I am worried that Premier Wynne — a key member in the McGuinty government — is going to further entrench a failed approach of overspending and debt," he wrote.

The PCs' Economic Development Critic Monte McNaughton was a little harsher in a statement published on the party's website.

"Watch for the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals to pull a rabbit out of their hat and claim Ontario is on track to balance by 2017-18 – or even sooner," McNaughton said.

"But they have no credible plan to do this. They didn’t a year ago with the last budget, and nothing has changed since."

The statement goes on to claim that the NDP's "grab-bag of excuses for propping up this government" will cost taxpayers an additional $285 million.

[ Related: Ontario Tories launch another attack ad against Kathleen Wynne ]

While the Conservatives are talking tough, it's probably not in their best interest to force an election at this point in time.

The latest polling numbers suggest that an election would be a three-way race between the Liberals, Tories and NDP and only result in another minority government.

The throne speech — and likely another raucous legislative session — gets underway at 3 p.m..

(Photo courtesy of The Canadian Press)

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